Kids Comics Pitchfest 2023 Showcase

FROM ALEPH TO ZED

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales X Jonathan Hennessey et al's The Comic Story of Beer. FROM ALEPH TO ZED explores the history of English both as a story of human interconnectedness and adaptation, and as a romp through world history, shedding light on why English has weird spelling and puzzling word endings, why our days of the week are named after pagan Germanic gods, and why we have so many words that mean the same thing. It also looks back at the ancient origins of our alphabet, like how our letter A came from an Egyptian hieroglyph that Phoenicians renamed aleph (ox), and how English speakers later saved the language from extinction at the hands of Vikings and later Normans, allowing it to evolve into modern English and beyond.

My Why:

I wrote FROM ALEPH TO ZED to make English and history feel more accessible and exciting to kids and to convey how our shared language is a living, dynamic artifact touching people and places around the globe and across time. English's complex and fascinating history, often hiding in plain sight within our alphabet, grammar, spelling, and word meanings, also reveals how language is intertwined with cultural identity, and influences how we define ourselves and the stories we tell.

I worked with an educational consultant to ensure the book’s content is aligned with various state and national curriculum standards for middle grades and higher, and I worked with middle schoolers to ensure the book is fun.